I have developed for my Design Thinking course a comprehensive explanation on how design can be part of big transformations in society. Instead of making changes to society, as in the paradigm of “social impact”, I teach my students to discover transformations already in course, understand them, and support them. The concept of contradiction is key to my approach: a unite of opposing forces struggling for dominance. Contradiction cannot be solved like a problem, but the struggle eventually produces a third force which transforms society. Contradiction-driven design is my practical approach to produce third forces which can transform society beyond the current dualisms.

1. Contradiction-driven design
Frederick van Amstel
http://fredvanamstel.com
Architecture and Design School
Digital Design
PUCPR

2. Multiple definitions of design

3. Design is making sense of things.
Klaus Krippendorff

4. The dirty mind game
•Work in pairs: draftsman versus reader
•Goal: to draw something without meaning
•Draftsman draw and the reader tries to find
meanings (draftsman loses 1 point per meaning)
•Draftsman remembers all the meanings and adds
his/her secret ones (+1 point per meaning)
•Draftsman wins if he has a positive balance
•Meanings should explain the whole drawing

5. Meaning comes from
contradictions
•I don’t know but I want to know
•I suppose someone knows, but I don’t
•I make sense of this thing based on other things
•I make my own sense, but I’m influenced by how
others make sense
•Conclusion: meaning comes from contradictions,
hence it is possible to make a game out of it

6. Contradiction in design
and in architecture

7. Contradiction between representation and represented

8. Contradiction as a formal feature

9. The Pompidou Centre is an inverted building, with service
infrastructure at the facade (Piano, Rogers e Franchini)

10. What is a contradiction
•An accumulated tension in society
•A struggle of two forces
•No force can be eliminated from the struggle
•Cannot be solved but can be overcome
•Contradiction is overcome by the creation of a
third force which contains the two existing forces
in a new configuration

11. The Treachery of Images (Rene Magritte)

12. What is not a contradiction
•Technical problems which can be solved
•Paradoxes which can’t be overcome
•Dilemmas in choosing between options
•Controversial opinions

13. Discussion
•Is it a contradiction or not?
•An umbrella that breaks with strong wind
•Drivers who do not obey the Law
•Children who asks for money at the traffic light
•Lack of options in the supermaket

14. PSP Game
•Identify problems and
solutions in an activity
using PSP
•Use different post-it colors
for problems and solutions
•Patterns of unsolvable
problems may reveal
contradictions

15. Contradiction is not something
abstract. It is very concrete.

17. This is not concrete.

18. Social inequality is concrete (Paraisópolis - São Paulo)

19. Consumption is concrete (Waste Land, Vik Muniz)

20. Prejudice is concrete (Viviany Beleboni)

21. Oppresion is when you feel a
contradiction
•... even if you don’t know
it is there (that is why it is
concrete not abstract)
•It is possible to
conceptualize
contradiction, but, the
concept is insuficient to
understand
•The only way to
understand is to go
through the contradiction
The Skin I Live In (2011)

22. Image theater
•Make an image using your
colleagues’ bodies as
statues
•Show the oppresion
through posture and
artifacts
•The oppresion must be
visible without explanation

23. Contradiction is the root of
the problem but also its
solution.

24. How to overcome
contradictions
•Society is the one who overcomes contradiction
•Contradiction is what allows society to change
•What the designer can do is to make it visible,
gather people and provide instruments to
generate the third force
•The third force is not a great idea (abstract). It
means going beyond idea and taking action
(concrete)

25. Dialectics can help designers
working with contradictions... or
confuse them even more!

26. Everything is under constant change...

27. ... and contradiction is the drive behind change.

28. Contradiction changes when the object expands.

29. Example: smartphones

30. The smartphone expanded its objects by incorporating
functionality from specialized instruments.

31. Steve Jobs in MacWorld 2007 criticized the lack of adaptation to
different objects in smartphone keyboards

32. System crisis (Clay Spinuzzi)
people
App
Blackberry’s physical keyboard
community
rules division of labor
object result
Smartphones could run apps, however, buttons could
not adapt to the new objects brought by the apps.

33. On-screen keyboard from iPhone

34. System crisis (Clay Spinuzzi)
people
App
iPhone’s on-screen keyboard
community
rules division of labor
object result
On-screen keyboard can adapt to objects, but it is
imprecise and difficult to memorize, hence, less
efficient.

35. Tactus keyboard with microbubbles

36. Voice recognition (iOS Siri)

37. Electrolux touchscreen refridgerator tried to steal some
objects from the smartphone (alarms, calendars, photos).

38. The Internet of Things may overcome this contradiction
between generic instruments and multiple objects

39. Object expansion
•Communication object — cellphone
•Consumption/production object — smartphone
•Relationship object — Internet of Things

40. Object analysis
•Make a play-doh model of an object which orients
an activity you want to change
•Draw a mind map around the object with its
characteristics
•Connect the
contradictory
characteristics
•If you don’t find
any contradiction,
map the bad
characteristics

41. Change through contradiction
•Contradictions are neither good or bad; they are
changing forces
•Change happens in cycles while the contradiction
is not overcome (incremental changes)
•Overcoming contradiction (radical changes)
happens when a third new force reconfigures the
relationship between the two opposing forces
•The third force expands the object of the activity

42. Third force

43. Hybrids: hybrid motor reduces carbon emissions
Electric motor Diesel motor
Hybrid motor

44. Hacking: some Internet content is distributed through USB
sticks in Cuba
Centralized Internet P2P Networks
Digital pirate

45. Ambiguous models: androgynous people question the split
of gender identities
Male Female
Transgender

46. Historical dialectics
Remembered past
Lived present
Imagined future
Male Female
Transgender Cisgender
Pansexual
Intersexual cyborg
Asexual

47. Design in the third force
•Create hybrids, hacks, and ambiguous models
•Analize contradictions, conflits, and problems
•Synthesize a new configuration for a
contradiction (equal but different)

48. Design dialectics
Creation
Creation
Creation
Analysis/Synthesis
Analysis/Synthesis
Analysis/Synthesis

49. Creating observations in a park, analyzing visitors’ behavior
and synthesizing a diagnostics of the park’s usage

50. Creating a map of issues, analyzing the pros and cons and
synthesizing a controversy around the park

51. Creating a template, analyzing the usage possibilities and
synthesizing a proposal for a workshop about the park

52. Creating a visualization of activities, analyzing the place
and synthesizing an occupation strategy

53. Historical-design dialectics

54. “Not in my backyard” neighborhood reaction towards the
park rennovation

55. This rendering made by a University of Twente student
raised too much expectation from the park center

56. Park rennovation proposal presented at Almelo’s City
Council

57. A project unfolds not only in
history, but also in space.

58. Spatial-design dialectics

59. Alternatives sketches for an interactive installation about
city development

60. Space of possibilities for CICI 2011 (Faber-Ludens)

61. Possibilities of space in CICI 2011

62. Interactive installation built at CICI 2011 by FIEP

63. Bodystorming exercise
•Redo the image theater
•Explore the possibilities of
action to overcome
contradiction
•Map actions in a flowchart
•Check with an outsider if
the action looks realistic
•Try a new action if it does
not work

64. Mapping the possibilities for action which reassure the
contradiction (no third force yet)

65. Mapping an action that steps out of the cycle and
reconfigures the contradiction (third force)

66. Design does not generate certitude.
Design creates possibilities.

67. Creation of possibilities
•Every idea is just a possibility and one among the
many
•The first idea is never the best
•A bad idea can work as a bridge to a new idea
•New ideas rise when testing the old ideas
•The impossible may become possible by the
creation of new possibilities

68. Using one contradiction to hide another.
Only one possibility is presented: drink Zero Sugar Coke.

69. Exposing the contradiction between taste and health. Two
possibilities are presented: taste or health.

70. Overcoming the contradiction: taste with health. However,
aluminium package is less healthy than plastic.

71. Contradiction-driven design
•Reproducing a contradiction in a new
configuration does not means eliminating it
•Leaving the project open is interesting to
stimulate adaptation and interpretation,
multiplying the possibilities for action and sense-
making
•Contradiction-driven design keeps hopes for
change alive

72. Thank you!
Frederick van Amstel
http://fredvanamstel.com
Architecture and Design School
Digital Design
PUCPR